


she thought about this irony as she stared back at the moon

by Duck_Life



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Episode: s03e15 Yesterday's Enterprise, F/M, Friendship/Love, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Prisoner of War, Romulans, Sexual Coercion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:33:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22274884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: Yar, Castillo and the moments of humanity they manage to share during years of captivity by the Romulans.
Relationships: Richard Castillo/Tasha Yar
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	she thought about this irony as she stared back at the moon

IX.

A handwritten note, crammed into one of the ration packets they give the prisoners:  _ No, I don't regret any of it. Take care of yourself. — T _

II.

The general leers at her, the V of his eyebrows raising in a lewd and hungry expression. "Lovely," he whispers, a hand trailing along Tasha's jawline. She holds her chin up, steady. "Whatever was a pretty thing like you doing on an ugly Federation ship?" His fingernails dig into her skin. 

"I was proud to join Starfleet," Tasha says. She does not say,  _ To get away from men like you _ .

III.

"A deal," the Romulan general declares. His name, they have learned, is Volskiar, and he intends to kill every last one of them. Castillo and Yar stand at the forefront of the group of survivors, facing Volskiar with fire in their eyes. "You Federation types like deals and diplomacy, yes?" 

Tasha says nothing. 

"I give you a choice, lovely.” Volskiar reaches out, his hand grazing her cheek. At her side, Castillo stiffens. “Easy or hard. Easy way: Your sniveling friends here come back to Romulus. We let them live. We give them food. They survive. You come with me. Enjoy a lavish life as a general's wife." She stares resolutely forward and waits for him to continue. "Hard way? You bite and scratch and scream. I take you anyway. We kill all the prisoners. You decide now."

Tasha tries to quell the rising dread in her stomach. Guinan the bartender's face flashes across her memory for a moment. She opens her mouth, but a voice yells out from beside her. "You bastard, if you think you can— " A guard leaps on Castillo, beating him until he falls to his knees, blood dribbling from his jaw. 

"Richard," Tasha whispers, shooting him a look. "Just don't. Just don't. Please." She looks back at the general. "I'll… I'll go with you."

  
  


IV.

Castillo is laying stones around the garden bed, reinforcing the walls where cracks have formed. The general's wife watches, and every now and then leans down to make a suggestion.

"I heard the guards talking earlier about Starfleet," Castillo murmurs, keeping his eyes down while he speaks. "Picked up all the important words, anyway. Commander Saavik is fighting for the release of— well, us."

"I hope she succeeds," Tasha says, crouching over the green sprouts of vegetation. "All I want is for you and your crew to get out of here.”

Castillo chances a glance at her. "And you, too."

She frowns. "I can't leave."

"Tasha, we're all getting out of here."

"No. You don't understand." Her hand drifts down to her abdomen, cradling it protectively, almost as if... 

The blood drains from Castillo's face. "No."

"Volskiar will never let me leave."

" _ No _ . We'll— I'll— get you something, drugs or something. You don't have to—"

"It's too late. He already knows," she whispers. "If anything were to happen now, he'd have all the prisoners killed in anger."

"You can't… I can't just let you…"

"Nobody lets me do anything," she says. That wasn’t always true, but it was once. She clings to the truth of it now. Nobody lets her do anything, and nobody makes her do anything. Everything is a choice. Bad choices, unfair choices, choices no one should ever have to make. But a choice, in its way. 

She has to think of it that way. It’s the only thing that keeps her upright and moving. 

"Now… you have a responsibility to your crew,” she says to Richard, hoping desperately that he’ll listen to her. “Okay?"

"I won't leave you here."

"You have to."

V.

Volskiar names the baby Sela. Tasha learns that the name means “to float, fly or hover” in the Romulan tongue. In the days and months that follow, in between nursing her newborn baby and trying to hoist herself out of a deep despair, she researches Romulan nomenclature and Romulan words. 

Those in the compound know English, and speak it if they wish to communicate directly with her or the other prisoners, but for the most part they conduct conversations in Romulan. Without the Federation-standard translator she’d become accustomed to, she can’t usually tell what they’re saying. She learns words like “th’ann” (prisoner) and Daeus (general). She learns ikhau (capture) and mnyiekher (force upon). 

After four months, she stumbles upon the word “daemnh” in one of the few dictionaries she has access to from her console. It means freedom. 

“That’s your middle name,” she whispers to Sela, cradling her daughter against her chest. “You’ll be Sela Daemnh.” 

VI.

Two years in the compound come and go. Rumors about Captain Spock and Commander Saavik coming to the rescue wax and wane, rippling through the compound every time the prisoners run out of things to talk about. 

Castillo is present for Sela’s first steps, watching with an aching sadness as she totters across the general’s living space. “There’s so much I want to show her,” Tasha confides in him. “San Francisco. Betazed. McKinley Station. I just… I want…” He’s never seen her cry, and it doesn’t seem that she’s about to start right now. It’s just that she can’t seem to finish her sentence.

He knows what she means, though. She wants what every parent wants: for their child to have a better life than they did. A feat that seems altogether impossible for Tasha’s daughter. 

Slowly, Richard reaches out to take her hand. 

  
  


VII. 

“What year did you say it was?” 

Richard almost smiles. “Time travelers are supposed to keep better track of that,” he says. Then— “It’s 2047.” 

“Would you believe,” Tasha says, “the other  _ me _ , the one who belongs in this time period… she’s doing even worse right now than I am.” 

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I didn’t know it was that bad.”

Her heart clenches. “It’s worse,” she says. “That girl is going to grow up and die a meaningless death.” 

“Who’s to say?” Richard says. “History? According to history, none of the crew of the Enterprise-C survived. And yet here we stand.”

“What, you think the other me is going to survive?”

“Maybe not,” he says, “but maybe her death won’t be so meaningless. After all— every person you meet, every life you touch, that has meaning. At any rate,” Richard adds, “dying a meaningless death doesn’t mean you lived a meaningless life.” 

VIII.

After three years, Commander Saavik finally makes good on her promise and arranges for the Federation prisoners on Romulus to be freed. “The deal is made, Tasha,” Richard says, whispering hurriedly. “Volskiar can’t lash out without risking a fight with the Federation. You could get out of here.” 

“Maybe I could,” she admits. “But I couldn’t take Sela.” The girl in question sits on the carpet before them, building a spire out of magnetic rods. She seems blissfully unaware of the earth-shaking problems all around her, focused intently on building her structure. 

“Yeah,” Richard sighs, because there’s not much he can say to that. Tasha had been right, way back then in the future. She had made a difference. Much of the crew of the NCC-1701-C will be returning home. “Tasha. Do you regret—” 

But he hears Volskiar’s boots in the corridor and has to leave. 

  
  


I.

Richard Castillo is trying to stay calm, but he’s fighting a losing battle. (It must be a day for those.) “I, um,” he says, twisting his hands together, “I was never trained on Romulan interrogation techniques.” 

“I don’t think anybody is,” Tasha says. She turns to look at him, seems to consider it for a moment, and then leans over to kiss him. It’s breathless and frightened and nowhere near as graceful as the kiss they shared in the transporter room of the 1701-D, but right now it’s all they have. “Think of it this way, Richard— we already fixed the timeline. Every breath after that is a bonus.” 

He keeps his eyes on her when the Romulans come to haul him away. 


End file.
